Basketball: Woods motif aids Ducks in CBI final

The record will show that sophomore E.J. Singler made the game-winning shot with 2 seconds left, lifting Oregon to a 71-69 win over Creighton in the championship game of the College Basketball Invitational.

But the Ducks got a huge assist from the “Deep in the Woods” decor of their new Matthew Knight Arena.

Senior Joevan Catron scored a career-high 29 points for the Ducks, who finished the sesaon at 21-18.

After Garrett Sim tied the game with 34 seconds left before Creighton’s Antoine Young was dribbling the ball near midcourt, trying to milk the clock before taking a final shot. Young stepped back and, with 17 seconds left, was whistled for a backcourt violation.

It didn’t help Young that the midcourt line at the new facility is nearly invisible to that it doesn’t diminish the artsy design of the floor. Hardly a surprise. There have been complaints about the hard-to-see midcourt line since Matthew Knight Arena opened in January.

“I didn’t think the ref was going to call it until one of the (Oregon players) said something,” Young told the Eugene Register Guard. “I think you’re just used to seeing the black line. You don’t really expect it to come into play until it does.”

It worked out wonderfully for the Ducks. “I’m happy they made the court like that now since we got the ball,” Singler said. “It played out right for us and we got the win, so I’m happy about it.

“He had no clue he was behind half court,” Singler added of Young. “You don’t see that on any other court.”

Bluejays coach Greg McDermott certainly agreed. “I can’t see it from (the coaching box) … there is no point of reference when you are getting close to the line,” he said.

It’s time for the Pac-10 Conference office to step in and inform Oregon that it needs a solid black midcourt line like everyone else on the planet. Creativity is great, but not at the expense of a level playing field.

Jeff Faraudo

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It is lame to not have a visable midcourt line but it is even more lame for a ref to call it when he probably couldn’t see it either.

cal teddy

As usual, Oregon keeps it classy.

Neil

The court is interesting to see, truly artistic, but from a functional perspective it’s atrocious and an embarrassment to the rest of the conference that we tolerate such foolishness. Boise St. has an excellent football team, but their blue field just serves to underscore they’re a podunk town in a two-bit league. That’s the type of stuff you expect in minor league baseball. But when it comes to the Pac-10 (12) it just comes across as juvenile. Grow up, Oregon.

Yoda

That court is typical Oregon – tasteless but flashy.

Uh Huh!

Oh, man.
That’s sad to hear. I was trying to find the game on TV somewhere to watch, but was unable. And now reading this makes me feel a bit sick.
I agree with you, JF. Somebody needs to step up and fix this embarrassing situation.

I went to find some commentary on the game from the Creighton point of view and found this:

It even includes a link to video highlights of the game, including the halfcourt violation play. I looked 4 times and couldn’t see it. (The claim of a travel on Singler, I also could not see.)

I would propose that the Pac 10 not be the office that comes down on Oregon for getting it’s court to meet regulation court requiremens, but the NCAA office do so.

Uh Huh!

By the way, anyone see the 60 Minutes show on March Madness and Money? I’m ready to go work with Sonny Vicario as I’ve long felt these players, entertainers, deserve something more than a $20k/yr scholarship. I have envisioned building a system where the highest rated players earn a higher salary, while the lowest rated who just make squads make nothing, and everyone else in between be on a scale based upon some sort of ranking system, dependent upon how they performed in high school, and then each year afterwards.

This would allow kids, who want to postpone the NBA in order to get their degree, a more reasonable option to do so – it would no longer be an ALL or NOTHING proposition from a financial standopint.

And I think the payments to players would come from the NCAA out of the TV revenue contract ($700M per year?), and players would get to choose whatever campus they wanted and still be eligible for the payments. I think it would encourage even more parity in the sport, as 2nd level players would likely prefer to be a star on a 2nd tier team in order to increase their ranking (and thus pay) for the next season. This increased parity would also increase viewer demand across the country, increasing overall revenue.

But that former UW guy, now head of the NCAA, comes off as a complete snob and jerk, defending the indefensible, so I can’t get too excited about my idea.